72 Friday, June 18, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Tour Jewish Lexicon' Boosts Knowledge of Hebrew
The dictionary, in the col-
lective and cumulative
sense, is always the most
important instrument to as-
sure accuracy in attaining
language knowledge. In the
study of foreign langauges
the dictionary is even more
valid. For an attainment of
intimacy with Hebrew all
the, elements of influence
from the dictionary become
even more important. He-
brew for Jews is not a
foreign language. It is the
sacred tongue of the people.
Yet it is all-too-often the
secondary language, except
in Israel.
Added strength to acquis-
ition of better knowledge of
Hebrew is provided in
"Your Jewish Lexicon"
(Union of American Hebrew
Congregations), the product
of an expert, published
posthumously. Edith
Samuel, the widow of one of
the most distinguished
Jewish writers of this cen-
tury, Maurice Samuel, died
suddenly in 1980, shortly
after she had completed this
work. As editor of Keeping
Posted for 18 years and as
director of the department
of adult Jewish studies of
the Union of American He-
brew Congregations, she at-
tained a high rating as
educator, author, guide to
many personalities in Re-
form Jewish ranks.
As publicist for the
American Jewish Con-
gress she added signific-
antly to the public rela-
tions activities of a major
American Jewish move-
ment. For a time she was
a supervisor of the Eter-
nal Light radio and tele-
vision program of the
Jewish Theological Sem-
inary of America.
Her posthumous work
merits being rated as a basic
educational contribution.
Mrs. Samuel felt there
was incompleteness in the
treatment of Hebrew terms
in dictionaries. She believed
that • "any Jewish lexicon
should help Jews know
more of their Jewish heri-
tage by examining reli-
gious, cultural, and intel-
lectual ideas compacted
within certain Hebrew
words and phrases." She ex-
plained her views in her in-
troduction to her book by
stating:
"The principle of pikuakh
nefesh, a supremely impor-
tant Jewish concept, cannot
be found as a pharse.
Nefesh means 'soul, spirit
of life, person.' Pikuakh is
defined as 'supervision.' By
combining the two transla-
tions, you get a nonsense
phrase: supervision of the
soul. Actually, pikuakh
nefesh means 'saving life.'
The obligation to save
human life is so imperative
in Jewish thought that even
the strict Shabat laws pro-
hibiting work must be set
aside to rescue endangered
persons.
"The popular He-
brew - English dic-
tionaries that I have seen
also fail to give nuances
of Hebrew usage. For in- this definitive page:
author Edith Samuel and is produced by the Union of •
stance, in Hebrew, Jews . "Your Jewish Lexicon" is a noteworthy addition tothe American Hebrew Congre-
never 'immigrate' to the a posthumous tribute to library of important books gations.
state of Israel; they 'rise
up, ascend' to Israel.
They go 'on aliya,' or they
`make aliya,' mean-
ing that they 'go up.'
"Similarly, in Hebrew,
Jews never 'leave' or 'emi-
grate from Israel; they 'de-
scend.' To understand this
oddity, you must bear in
mind the topography of Is-
rael, the location of the city
of Jerusalem high in the
am
people
Judean Hills — and the et-
ernal centrality and sanc-
sefer
book
tity of the city of Jerusalem
in the Jewish heart."
Therefore, she divided
am ha-Sefer 1Picri
the people of the Book
her lexicon into 72 portions,
each devoted to specific
sefarim
books
terms, including the Sidur,
Am HaSefer — the People of
the Book, the Tanach,
Sefer ha-Sefarim trripprr
the Book of Books, the Hebrew
Shalom Aleichem, Mazal
Bible
Toy, and scores of related
words and phrases.
The book is sprinkled
bet sefer
nIn
school, schoolhouse
with quotations of signific-
ant statements regarding
Sefer Torah in . ipc?
handwritten parchment scroll
the terms alluded to:
containing
the
Five
Books
of
Moses
Mrs. Samuel advised
the student and reader to
always have available
sofer
Torah scribe
the Tanach, in order to
apply terms in the Bible
sofer (masc.) npip
author, literary person
to the aim of acquiring
knowledge about He-
soferet (fern.) rii.pio
brew and to perfect the
language.
Thus, as alluding to all
the other sections, there is a
sifriyah
library
full page on The People of
the Book — Am HaSefer,
genizah i11 1 4
storage room or hiding place for
and accompanying it,
worn-out
sacred
books
exemplifying the lexicon, is
hi,oprT tnlz
Hebrew root:
3
1-n-o
ny
trripp
riripp
Contrasting Assimilationist and Devout Jew
'Under the Canopy' Portrays Two Different Jewish Worlds
By ALLEN A. WARSEN
"Under the Canopy,"
authored by Dorothea
Straus (George Braziller) is
both a family record and a
story of friendship.
Dorothea Straus, wife of
Roger, the grandson of
Oscar Straus, traces her
lineage to her great-
grandfather, Samuel
Goldman, the former owner
of a brewery in the small
town of Ludwigsburg in the
former kingdom of
Wurttenberg.
For reasons unknown to
the author, Samuel
Goldman unexpectedly was
forbidden- to operate the
brewery by the kingdom's
ruler. Deprived of his liveli-
hood, he immigrated to the
United States where he
built a brewery in Brooklyn.
Her great-grandfather,
writes Dorothea Straus,
"though transplanted,
had remained obdurately
German" and had estab-
lished in the brewery
building a school for his
grandchildren's educa-
I.B. SINGER
lion and even imported
from the "old country" a
German teacher to in-
struct them.
In her fascinating por-
trayal of Isaac Bashevis
Singer, the author contrasts
her great-grandfather, the
atheistic-assimilationist,
with the great Yiddish
writer's grandfather, the
Hasidic Rebbe of Bilgoray,
the warm. and devout Jew.
Characteristic of the
Rebbe of Bilgoray is this
anecdote: a Hasid once
asked the rebbe "why it was
that God, who had created
the entire universe and all
things in it, still needed
everyone to praise Him
thrice daily."
"It's not that He needs our
praise," the rebbe an-
swered, "He is just afraid
that if we stop praising
Him, we will begin to praise
one another!"
Interesting is Mrs.
Straus' account of a lec-
ture Singer once deliv-
ered at West Point. In-
stead of talking on "free-
dom" as he had been
asked, he discussed liter-
ature; the, cadets "knew
more about freedom," he
told General Goodpaster,
the school's director,
"than I do. They were
born in a free country."
"Literature," Singer ex-
plained in his heavenly
Yiddish accented English,
"like life itself, is a risk and
a hazard in its very nature,"
and tries "to muddle
through and smuggle itself
over the frontiers of all pos-
sibilities."
During the question
period, he was asked for his
thoughts about Israel. He
replied, "For hundreds of
years in Poland, whenever
they hated Jews they told
them 'go back to Palestine.'
So a number of Jews decided
to go to Israel, and when
they got there they were
told, 'go back to Poland, go
back to Germany, go back to
Spain.' So what is a Jew to
do? He has to go some-
where."
The author, who has been
assisting Singer translate
his Yiddish stories into
English, notes, "After over
40 years in his adopted
country, he remains what
he had always been, a prod-
uct of the destroyed Polish
shtetl and Warsaw ghetto,
where by necessity there
could be only humility,
where family closeness was
a substitute for national
pride, and religion and the
handing down of its rituals
was an antidote to poverty
and persecution."
Mrs. Straus char-
acterizes Singer as an
"archetypal storyteller of
old," whose narratives
are frequently in-
tertwined with "dyb-
buks," demons, spirits
and angels.
Illuminating is the
author's description of her
own family. Like her
great-grandfather, "The
Goldmans took considera-
ble pride in the fact" that
their circle of friends was
Judenrein. They regarded
Jewishness "as an unfortu-
nate condition, a stigma in
the eyes of the rest of the
world."
Wealthy German Jews,
like her family, shunned
East European Jews; k _ ept
them out of their clubs and
milieu. Yet, Dorothea was
aware that her family was
"an isolated group, built
upon a shaky ladder of
snobbery."
Her father died in 1960
and her mother, who died
ALLEN WARSEN
twenty years earlier, would
often say, "To be Jewish is to
have a clubfoot." Like her
parents, the other family
members "died disavowers,
turning their backs to the
specter of a Jewish heritage
to the very end." Still her
an c estors were buried in a
Jewish cemetery on Long Is-
land.
Thorough is the
author's account of the
ceremony held in Stoc-
kholm in December 1978
at which Singer received
the Nobel Prize.
According to established
custom, Singer prior to the
ceremony held a press con-
ference at which he was
asked a variety of questions,
mostly personal. For in-
stance, one reporter wanted
to know whether he be-
lieved in God. "More each
day," came the reply. An-,
other asked, "Are you a veg-
etarian for religious reasons
or for reasons of health?"
His answer, "I am con-
cerned with the health of
the chicken, not my own."
In the Stockholm Concert
Hall where the ceremony
took place, Mrs. Straus ob-
serves, "Isaac Singer, on in-
timate terms with
magic world of the Ka
was surrounded now by
representatives of the won-
derland of science and eco-
nomics."
Dorothea Straus' "Under
the Canopy" is written
eloquently and candidly. It
would be an excellent addi-
tion to any bookshelf or li-
brary ofJudaica, the Jewish
experience and Isaac
Bashevis Singer.